the most demeaning job in the world

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Guest Tam o' Shantie

Guest Tam o' Shantie

it has never occurred to me how degrading it must be to play a bit part in certain adverts which grace our screens...anybody see the bonjella advert? no, not the one with the girl in the motorcycle helmet that hasn't been updated in well over a decade, but the more recent revision which bonjella created to ensure that they remained a competetor in today's cold sore treatment industry. So, tell me - how would you like to be the guy that plays the cold sore? The idiot had to sit inside a papier macher pit, dress from head to to in a white lycra jumpsuit, and make growling noises while waving his hands in a suggestively evil manner, all while encapsulated in some sort of bizarre rubber/cling film prison. And i'm not expecting for a minute that he managed to blast out such a perfect take first time - must have taken several attempts to get the right feel

shit, i started writing this ages ago, then i phoned dabby and started watching hollyoaks. you know where i'm coming from though, right?

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not just retail' date=' i hate the way people treat service staff in all sectors as if they were their personal slaves.

Always treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself.[/quote']

I agree with this, although it has got me nowhere in life....i always cringe when I hear someone giving someone an earload over the phone about something pathetic, I couldn't live with myself treating people like shit and calling it constructive....

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i always cringe when I hear someone giving someone an earload over the phone about something pathetic' date=' I couldn't live with myself treating people like shit and calling it constructive....[/quote']

i agree, but at the same time, i dont think that people who are shite at their job deserve some kind of protection simply because they're poorly paid. if you provide a poor level of customer service to someone who is paying, when they've not given you any reason not to do your job well, then you should expect what's coming to you.

/x

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i agree' date=' but at the same time, i dont think that people who are shite at their job deserve some kind of protection simply because they're poorly paid. if you provide a poor level of customer service to someone who is paying, when they've not given you any reason not to do your job well, then you should expect what's coming to you.

/x[/quote']

Once a friend of mine was staying at The Travel Lodge in Bridge Street. He was from Houston, and his mobile phone wasn't setup for the UK. The only means I had of contacting him so that we could hook up, was via the Travel Lodge. So I called their national 0845 number, and eventually managed to get passed through to the reception desk in Aberdeen (via India). I asked the guy there, please could you pass a message onto Charlie ******* in room 214 to call me. The guy was somehow under the impression that I was calling from a long way away, decided to get his jollies over the phone, refused to do it, said he wasn't my slave, and told me to fuck off...

...so I walked the 800 yards from The Moorings to the Travel Lodge and 'convinced' him to pass my number to for Charlie. Which he did. I reckon he was most helpful on the phone after that.

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To be fair for the sake of 50p I'd probably have called... it might have been raining etc etc.

One of the most demeaning jobs I've ever had was at the wonderful Marks & Spencer... a woman once complained that I wouldn't smile at her (this was when I got one of my front teeth knocked out and was trying to conceal this fact) she then got annoyed when I gave her a toothless grin and a slightly lisped (sp?) apology.

It's the only place I've worked where you can be given into actual trouble for not constantly having a smug grin pasted across your face... it's particularly difficult to do when you're on a 12 hour shift and your break is 3 hours late and some rich wench is nagging at you about the fact she spends £300 a week there and can't leave her John Lewis carrier bags in at collect by car.

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I used to get told off for not smiling at customers in Miss Selfridges, so I was sent down to the stock room to listen to metal and tidy up; I only ever had to come up stairs to scare away shoplifters.

What I can't stand is people who think that just because you're not speaking to them face to face, that gives them the right to be assholes down the phone.